Implantable medical devices include cardiac function management devices, such as pacers, cardioverters, defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapy devices, or devices having a combination of such attributes. Such devices generally use electrodes, such as for sensing intrinsic electrical heart signals, for delivering stimulations to induce heart contractions, or for delivering a countershock (“shock”) to interrupt a tachyarrhythmia.
Cardiac function management devices are typically programmable. This allows a clinician or other user to establish proper values of one or more control parameters that control device operation, such as to tailor device functionality to a particular patient's needs. There are typically a plethora of device control parameters, which are typically subject to a complex set of sometimes interrelated rules constraining their values. This can make programming an implantable cardiac function management device to meet a particular patient's needs a daunting task for a clinician, who must typically operate within the demanding time-constraints imposed by our modern medical system.